


Inquisitors vs. Champions

by stitchcasual



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/F, M/M, anders doesn't fight fair, epic snowball fight, i'm rubbish at tags but i promise this is a good time, some suggestive language re: balls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 10:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13246029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchcasual/pseuds/stitchcasual
Summary: Hawke and Trevelyan (with a little help from their friends) resurrect the glory of the old Inquisitors versus Champions snowball fight tradition





	Inquisitors vs. Champions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PaddlingDingo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaddlingDingo/gifts).



> Written for the Bananas for Thedas Discord chat holiday exchange with lots of love for crack <333

The annual Inquisitors versus Champions snowball fight had actually begun as a school-sanctioned bridge-building activity between the two schools. As the top two schools in the region, Skyhold University and Kirkwall College thought it would be a good way to showcase their respective schools and give the rivalry between them a friendly arena to play out in that wasn’t one of the serious sports. Thus it was decreed that on the day of the first good snowfall of the year, classes would be canceled and most of the contingent of both schools would troop down to Free Marches Park, the largest open space convenient to both institutions, for a good old-fashioned snowball fight.

After a few years, however, the tradition fell by the wayside. Not enough interest it seemed, until, a years later, a few freshman at both schools heard about the old event and conspired to resurrect it in a more casual style. Hawke plastered posters in the dead of night around Skyhold University with a cryptic message and phone number attached. He had to field quite a few rather strange text messages before he finally received Trevelyan’s ecstatic reply. They met over waffles at a local breakfast establishment halfway between their dorms and hashed out as many details as they could initially, promising to meet again once they’d assembled some teams. Then, as was tradition, on the day of the first good snow and after a flurry of texts between them, the Inquisitors and Champions met on the field of battle at Free Marches Park, skipping class and really not feeling any regret at all as they threw snowballs until every square inch of snow in the park had been flung, stepped on, or otherwise destroyed. They quickly agreed to do it again the next year.

Now, four years into Hawke and Trevelyan’s college careers and with graduation looming in the next semester, they both fell into the snowball fight with all the enthusiasm they’d had for the first one. Perhaps a little desperation fueled them as well, the sad realization that next year they’d be expected to be adults and hold down real jobs and probably wouldn’t be able to take a day just to run around with their friends. And who knew where they would all end up? Trevelyan’s girlfriend, Josie, was considering moving back to Antiva after graduating to help out the family business, and if she went, Trevelyan would too. It was taken for granted that wherever Fenris went, Hawke would follow as well, and no one knew where Fenris wanted to go, not even Fenris. Likewise, the rest of their merry gangs had plans and dreams of their own, and this would be one of the last things they did as a full group.

Hell if they’d go easy on each other because of it, though.

Trevelyan dove to the ground, rolled, and came up with a fistful of snow that she threw in Fenris’s direction while Hawke’s back was turned, occupied with Cullen’s precise rapid-fire attacks. She crowed as it hit, snow splattering across Fenris’s face. He kept hold of the snowball in his hand, unfortunately, and launched it immediately back at her when his vision cleared of snow. Her attempt at a dodge was too slow, but she did manage to turn enough so it hit her side rather than straight on. They both lunged for more snow.

“Betrayal!” Hawke screamed at Cullen as he ducked a snowball only to have two more hit his face and chest when he straightened up. “We were family once!” Hawke’s side-arm shot struck Cullen on the neck, dripping cold snow down under Cullen’s clothes and prompting him to drop the snowballs he’d gathered as an involuntary full-bodied shiver shot through him. Cullen bent to grab a snowball from the ground and tossed it like a bowling ball toward Hawke.

“I went to your school for  _ one year, _ Hawke!”

“Betrayal!”

Isabela popped out of the snow behind the line of Inquisitors, scooping handfuls of snow and flinging them at the closest targets to her, striking the backs of their heads and dancing away before they could turn and throw anything back. Cassandra, her face contorted into a mask of righteous fury, gave chase, occasionally pausing to grab more snow to throw. Behind her, Sera cackled with wild glee, lobbing a snowball in a high arc to land square on top of Isabela’s head as she ran away. The surprise of the snow landing on her head paused Isabela long enough for Cassandra to catch up and tackle her into a large drift.

A few feet away, Dorian cast a look that somehow managed to be a cross between concerned and offended and packed his snowball tighter together before peeking around his mountain of a boyfriend to snipe at Hawke’s brother, Carver. He ducked back behind Bull when the kid roared his outrage and began returning fire as fast as humanly possible. Bull, the only person out in the cold and snow without a jacket, quirked an amused eyebrow down at Dorian as Carver’s snowballs rained down on him. Without a word he bent to pick up snow of his own, allowing a snowball or two to make it past and hit Dorian behind him.

“Get back in position!” Dorian sputtered, trying to still hide behind the slightly smaller target Bull presented when bent over.

“I’ll get in whatever position you want later,” Bull promised, winking at Dorian before he straightened back up and hurled the largest snowball Dorian had ever seen toward Carver, knocking the poor kid flat on his ass so hard he saw stars.

At the far end of the park, Merrill and Josie were engaged in the most polite snow battle, lightly tossing ill-formed balls of snow back and forth, giggling and apologizing when they hit each other and running in circles. From behind a park bench nearby, Leliana mercilessly attacked anyone who approached, keeping anyone with even the vaguest hint of bad intentions away, herding them with well placed snowballs back to the main pitch. Josie pretended not to notice but smiled to herself while Leliana’s back was turned.

Anders pressed his back against the small snow-wall he’d built, holding a small clump of snow between his hands, eyes closed, hands glowing faintly blue. After another minute, he opened his eyes, grinned wickedly, and twisted around to pick a target. Halfway across the field, Blackwall yelped and clapped a hand to the back of his head, smashing the snowball he’d been holding onto the spot where he’d been hit and yelling more.

“Hey, that’s not fair! You’re freezing your balls!”

Behind his wall, Anders collapsed on his side in a fit of giggles and couldn’t get up. He pounded the snow with one hand, tears streaming down his face. Hawke glanced over, eyebrows half raised in question, but Anders waved him off, hauling himself back upright by clutching his snow-wall, still cackling, to grab another small glob of snow and harden it between his hands.

Cole followed Vivienne around the park for a while, despite her insistence that he need not do so and in fact that she would prefer he not. He eventually left her side as it became apparent that she truly did not need his help as she used her magic to summon the snow into her hands and help her aim with devastating effect, knocking Sebastian about quite efficiently and making it hard for him to mount a counterattack of his own. Just because they went to the same church, after all, didn’t mean she had to let him win the snowball fight.

Cole’s footsteps barely made a sound in the crunching snow as he ghosted around the battlefield, helping anyone and everyone where he could. He assisted Aveline in standing up after Isabela’s friendly fire knocked her over and handed her a pile of snow when she gained her feet. He pushed over a new drift when Dorian ran out of snow immediately behind Bull. He left a small pile of snowballs on the bench for Leliana and one in between the territories Hawke and Fenris had staked out for themselves. He wrapped Trevelyan’s golden scarf back around her neck when it came loose and fell off during one of her acrobatic maneuvers. And when the fight finally ended late in the afternoon, he’d also somehow managed to procure enough thermoses of hot chocolate to pass around to everyone.

“We totally won this year,” Hawke said to Trevelyan, bumping into her as they walked toward the vans after finishing off the cocoa.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My team is clearly superior to yours in every way.”

“Clearly superior  _ at losing, _ you mean.”

“I don’t know, Chuckles,” Varric said, closing his notebook and rising from the bench he’d installed himself on at the beginning of the game. “I might have to call this one a draw.”

Both Trevelyan and Hawke gasped dramatically, hands over their hearts, and mock fainted. Josephine caught Trevelyan, fanning her and looking properly scandalized at Varric. Fenris, on the other hand, let Hawke fall into the snow and peered down at him with one eyebrow quirked. He got a face full of snow for it and laughed as he extended a hand to help Hawke back up.

“I am sorry, Hawke, but it looks like you will have no trophy this year.”

“There’s never been a trophy, Fenris, that’s not the point! It’s the...the bragging rights, the sense of pride and accomplishment! Of knowing that we ground those Inquisitors into the ice and not letting them forget it for a full calendar year! Don’t you have any sense of school spirit?!”

Fenris blinked at Hawke, looked at Varric who just shrugged, and shook his head.

“Not that...that really matters anymore,” Hawke continued, his generally jovial face twisted into a frown. The next second he flung his arms around Trevelyan, hugging her tight. “Thank you,” he whispered to her, low enough that no one else could hear. She squeezed him back then pushed him away with a gruff pat on the head.

“We’ll do it again sometime, Hawke. Even if we have to wait until we’re old and gray, we’ll do it again. If only so I can prove that I’ll still be able to thrash you no matter how old I am.” Trevelyan winked and punched Hawke’s shoulder, and as they all piled into the cars for the ride to the breakfast place, Hawke argued with Trevelyan about who would make the more terrifying old person while Josie and Fenris rolled their eyes and smiled softly and did their best to make plans for how to do this again next year.


End file.
